David looked from them to the observant Eric, who now leaned his hip against the billiard table. One hand rested near the top of his upright pool stick.
An easy smile broke across his face, one he hoped wouldn’t anger his new flatmate.
David slid his stick across the surface of the table with a grimace. “I see now, Liddell, where you misspent your youth.”
LIKE MANY CHRISTIANS, Eric pursued the irresistible lure of God’s law and its precision. One day, during their time as flatmates, Eric entered the room of the young Dr. George Dorling. He carried a copy of the New Testament in one hand, and his blue eyes held a deeper twinkle than usual. “Look at this, George,” he said, opening the book and pointing to Matthew 5:48. “‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.’” Eric straightened. “He said it, and he means it. You and I can and should be no less than that—perfect, even as our heavenly Father is perfect.”
When he left the room, George pondered the way Eric lived, how he sought God earnestly, and how he weighed out his own actions when he fell short of that perfection he felt so called to achieve. Eric, George surmised, never spoke unkindly of anyone, always seeking to find the good in them, even if only the tiniest ember. “We three,” Dr. Dorling said years later, “were miles below the standard Eric set for himself.”[38]
Life continued at its usual nonstop pace.
Eric and his flatmates rose each morning to breakfast, served at 7:30 by Kwei Lin, their cook. After finishing the first meal of the day, each man returned to his own private quarters for quiet time, then left for work.
Eric taught from nine to four o’clock, followed by afternoon tea. Later the men enjoyed their dinner meal, typically an English one. And each day, Eric managed to sneak a peek at the young Miss MacKenzie and to note that she grew more and more beautiful. Because Jenny had gone to Scotland, Florence no longer took piano lessons in his old home, which meant Eric could no longer “happen by” for tea, or just “happen” to need a book from the room adjacent to the piano room.
Eric needed a plan B.
Keissling and Boder, a Tientsin German restaurant, was famous for its cakes and chocolates and ice creams. Of course Eric, a teacher, could not ask Florence, a student, to go for dessert alone, so instead of asking her only, he asked if her siblings might like to come along as well. “My treat,” he said.
Before long, not only did Florence and “four or five of the younger MacKs” enjoy the fruit of Eric’s pocket change, but their invited friends did as well.
At the opening of summer 1929, with another year behind him, Eric went to Pei Tai Ho for his annual vacation to spend time relaxing in the summer sunshine, to bathe in the warm beach water, to catch up on his reading and his napping . . . and to continue his pursuit of getting to know better the object of his growing affection. The MacKenzie family was also vacationing in Pei Tai Ho. Seeing Florence on the beach or during group activities was easy enough, but he now knew for certain that if he was going to keep the younger men from attempting to court her, he’d have to monopolize her time a bit more creatively.
As he’d done in Tientsin, he managed to arrive on the front porch of the MacKenzies’ cottage for afternoon tea. Then, as the sun sank toward the horizon, he’d ask Florence if she’d like to take a stroll along the beach. She’d accept, and while the world grew pink and brilliantly orange around them, they’d talk leisurely about anything and everything.
Florence’s physical loveliness aside, Eric found in her a young woman of great Christian character, energy, and wit. And as with everyone who knew Eric, Florence found his gentleness and kindness, his mischievousness, his way with children, and his love of God to be exceptionally charming and drawing.
During this time, Eric continued his strong friendship with “the other Eric,” teacher Eric Scarlett.
In a letter to friends, Eric wrote,
Mr. Scarlett, one of the other foreign teachers, and I have been having our mid-day meal with the students lately, instead of going home. This is something that foreigners have not done in recent years and it certainly was a bit of an eye opener. . . .
There is a good deal of talk about there being no need for foreigners out here etc. that I cannot agree with. We certainly have something to give to China just as China has something to give to us. The standards always seem to decrease unless there is a foreigner at the head. (Ch’a bu dou) is a great expression with them, it means, good enough or near enough and it is an indication of the character of a great number of the people. Exactness they do not worry about.[39]
In August, before school started and while Eric was still on “vacation,” the two Erics, known as Liddell and Scarlett, led a camp in Pei Tai Ho for over thirty poor boys (all but two of them Russian) from Tientsin. For two weeks, the two Erics engaged the boys in activities designed for both body and soul.
When their time together came to a close, Scarlett said, “They’re not only more fit, they weigh more leaving than coming in.” He suggested that they do it again in the future.
In the fall of 1929, with classes at TACC well under way again, Eric caught the news that Dr. Otto Peltzer, the reigning world record holder in the 500 meters, the 800 meters, and the 1,500 meters, planned to visit China. While he was there, someone suggested organizing a race between the two champions.
Eric had hardly been in training—and said as much—but acquiesced because of the fun the event would bring. He
